What if your career site attracted, engaged, informed, and even screened qualified candidates? If your career site did each of these things, it would be capturing information and applications from both job-seeking candidates and perhaps highly qualified, passive candidates visiting your site. Chances are, though, your career site is lacking one or more of the critical components that combine to create a dynamic candidate experience. This is the second in our series of "Career Site Bits" that will address the best practices of career sites, including the advanced content, functionality, and design practices that will help you optimize your career site into a finely tuned recruitment tool.

What information did I come to your site looking for and what additional engaging information did I find - your career site and the candidate experience.

Most likely, you visit multiple Websites for a variety of reasons every day. Have you ever visited a new Website in search of a particular piece of information, found that piece of information, and then continued to click and read through the site finding additional engaging information on each page and in each section? This company, through its Website, has provided you with more than you expected. Adding a variety of advanced information, in addition to the basic content on your career site, will positively impact the user's experience and show that you have kept the candidate in mind as you developed your site.

The first article in this series took a closer look at the most common content areas of a career site. This article will focus on the possibilities of what the advanced content might be. I would like to reiterate that the needs of every organization are different, and so every career site should be unique and reflective of those differences. More advanced content areas often include:

• "Day in the Life"
• Featured Positions
• Career Paths
• Culture/Environment
• Community/Philanthropy
• Career Advancement
• Training and Development
• Community Highlights
• Interactive Content
• Video

A closer look at possible advanced content.

A section highlighting the "Day in the Life" of an employee offers the candidates visiting your site a much more detailed view of a specific position or department. It can also offer information on your company culture, the employees, and the working environment. Basing the information in this section from a current employee's perspective will give a personal aspect to the site.

Highlighting particularly hard-to-fill positions in a "Featured Positions" section will create awareness of those positions. Updating this section with new "Featured Positions" on a regular basis will keep the site fresh for candidates who often return to your site.

Content that can give more clarity and understanding of how a candidate's career may progress within the company will be of great interest to many candidates. "Career Paths" are often most engaging when utilized with additional business areas and departmental information.

Exploring the "Culture" or "Environment" in-depth on your career site will offer candidates a better understanding of what a new employee might not learn until a few weeks into a new position. What is appropriate office dress? Is there a lunchtime walking program? Are pets allowed?

Is your company active in the community? Are there programs, initiatives, or a foundation associated with your company? In a "Community" or "Philanthropy" section of the site, candidates can learn more about the opportunities to become involved in the community through the company.

Understanding the process by which a company promotes and hires from within their own organization shows candidates how a company values both their employees and those candidates interested in pursuing a position. "Career Advancement" content can continue to emphasize opportunity for long-term career growth to candidates by outlining the options for internal mobility.

If your company has employee training and development programs, it's a good idea to showcase these areas on your career site. A "Training and Development" section can give an overview of the programs for each business area, which are mandatory, and/or who is eligible to participate.

Highlighting an area's unique attributes for a location for which it is difficult to recruit can create awareness with candidates. Content in the "Community Highlights" section might include city life, arts and culture, attractions, recreation and sports, restaurants and entertainment, and more.

Some of these areas can be complemented to increase impact with interactive content. These components can include visual and written content as well as recorded voice-overs. There are endless opportunities to create and optimize interactive content on career sites; the following are just a few examples. The "Day in the Life" page could be a component that enables the user to move through the timeline of the day by clicking forward and backward and even offering choices of what the employee might do next. Interactive career paths can help the candidate visually understand how his/her career might move forward or laterally, based on what level they enter the company.

Much like interactive content, video can have great impact on the candidate's experience. With visual messaging, the candidate can hear and see information versus reading it. Videos often range from 30 seconds to 2 minutes or longer and can be utilized in a number of ways. Popular ideas for videos include management or employee testimonials, tours, overall branding and messaging, business area messaging, or specific initiatives.

The advanced content areas mentioned in this article are some great ways to exceed the expectations of the candidates visiting your site. Together with the basic content areas mentioned in the first article, this can create an engaging and robust career site focused on the candidate's needs and wants. The next article will focus on the functionality of the site from the candidate's experience, including the organization of this content.

View part 1 of previous newsletter

Please stay tuned: Future articles will focus on design and brand and the functionality of career sites - and always with respect to the candidate's experience. If you would like to discuss more about career sites with Shaker, please contact nicole.guenther@shaker.com.